Child Safety Tips on Escaping From a Kidnapper

Alerting Kids to the Danger of Kidnapping

Jan 10, 2009

"99.8% of children who go missing do come home," reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 3% are abducted by non-family members.

In 2003 Honeywell and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) put out a national survey entitled “First Report: Numbers and Characteristics” and found that abductions and kidnappings were the number-two concern among parents and grandparents.

The kidnapper is Often Someone the Child Knows

An estimated 354,100 children in the United States in 1998 were abducted by parents or family members(National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) Shockingly, acquaintance kidnappings involve a large percentage of juvenile offenders. In addition, adolescents were responsible for about one-half of the reported child molestation cases and about one-fifth of all rapes. Female teenagers are most often the victims of these types of kidnappings. Sexual and physical assault is highly associated with acquaintance kidnappings.

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported 412 parental abduction cases in 1991, 378 in 1992 and almost 407 in 1993. Ontario had the largest number of cases; in 1992, there were 164 cases and 177 in 1993.

In their 2003 survey entitled “First Report: Numbers and Characteristics,” the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children confirmed that about 20 percent of the non-family abductions reported to them are not found alive. They also stated that in 80 percent of the stranger kidnappings the stranger came into first contact with a child within a quarter-mile of the child’s home. Stranger Kidnappings involve more female victims than males (74% off all victims are female). Most of the kidnappings occur outside; most of the time teenagers and children under the age of 12 are victims; and sexual assault is typically associated with the female kidnapping victims.

The most recent data collected by the US Department of Justice on missing child cases in the United States in 1993, reported that approximately 1 in every 10,000 reports of a missing child -- about 100 US children per year were kidnapped by violent or predatory abductors. In 74 percent of the cases the victims were dead within three hours after abduction.

Many parents find comfort in knowing that their children are aware of the potential risk of kidnapping and are armed with the knowledge of what to do if approached by a kidnapper.

Odds of survival are far better on the spot rather than at a secluded secondary crime scene that a kidnapper chooses to carry out his/her evil plans undeterred.

There are some basic guidelines children should be taught in case of a potential kidnapping. They are as follows:

Abducted children suffer emotionally and often physically at the hands of their abductors. Uprooted from family and friends, abducted children may have their names and appearances altered, and may be under strict instructions not to reveal their true identifies. Also, abducted children may be taught to fear the very people who could help them: police, teachers and doctors.

The copyright of the article Child Safety Tips on Escaping From a Kidnapper in Parenting Resources is owned by Kimberley Powell. Permission to republish Child Safety Tips on Escaping From a Kidnapper in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.